The Gift of Friendship
by CrystalRei
Summary: Ciel's birthday is coming up, and the Resistance is doing their best to celebrate. Alouette has an idea she knows will make her happy, she just needs the help of a certain legendary reploid...


Colbor chuckled and shook his head at the sign as he flicked the switch underneath. Somehow the paper that had "commander's room" scrawled on it had survived moving from their first, run-down base to the newer one, and had stayed taped up outside of Ciel's room to this day. Elpizo had tried taking it down a few times, but it always mysteriously turned up the next morning, to the point that the former leader had simply given up. Rumors flew about on who had been replacing it, but nowadays it remained undisturbed (Kran's pet theory had been that it was Zero, as he's always seemed particularly resistant to the change in regime, but it somehow seemed so out of character no one had taken it seriously).

The door to the human's room/lab hissed open quietly and the Resistance fighter stepped inside, not saying anything. Ciel was fast asleep, her computer's keyboard shoved back to make room for her head, which was cradled in her arms. A stack of books and journals were precariously balanced on the floor near her chair, and a small cup of probably-cold coffee rested nearby on her desk. Colbor smiled at the sight of the ever-working scientist finally getting some decent rest, even if it wasn't the best position for her. He considered moving her to her bed, but that might wake her up and in all honesty she needed the sleep.

"Colbor?" a voice spoke from behind him, causing the reploid in question to jump a few inches in the air before whirling around to stifle the source.

Cerveau stared over his shoulder at the sleeping human and lowered his voice accordingly. "Sorry, I was just coming by to drop off some notes I had, but I suppose it can wait." He motioned with a data pad in his hand.

Colbor shrugged. "Don't think it'll disturb her too much. I just hadn't seen Alouette in a while so I figured _someone_ had to check up on her before she works herself to death."

The engineer chuckled softly. "Indeed. Well, I'll just leave these with her. I wouldn't worry about Alouette too much; she's probably just going crazy trying to think of the perfect gift."

"Huh?" Colbor stared in confusion as Cerveau silently left the data pad on top of the book stack, miraculously not moving it in the least.

"You don't remember? Her birthday's in a week or so now, you know."

Colbor choked his exclamation of shock back down for Ciel's sake. "Oh shoot! I forgot!"

As the raven-haired reploid spun around and ran back the way he came from, Cerveau grinned in amusement and slipped out of the room himself. Now to get back and finish up his own little present.

* * *

Alouette had, in fact, thought of the perfect present a long time ago; the only problem was actually getting it together. Hence the reason she had sought out one of the people most likely to know the information she was looking for.

"Totten?"

The purple cyber-elf spun around at Alouette's call. "Hey, what's up?"

"I wanted to ask you something." the child replied, clutching her ever-present plushie.

* * *

Ciel sleepily blinked from her light nap and slowly pushed herself upright in her chair. She pulled her ponytail back over her shoulder and winced, arching her back to get rid of the kinks from sleeping in that position.

'_I've _got_ to learn to stop doing that.'_ she thought, reaching for her coffee.

It was cold, unsurprisingly, but all Ciel really cared about was the caffeine. Taking her computer out of sleep mode, she noted that everything seemed to be in order and untouched, and then reached for her notebook without looking.

Her hand collided with a data pad a shifted the stack underneath from 'precarious' to 'dangerously unbalanced.' Before she had time to react the whole thing seemed to simply fall out from underneath itself, spreading paper in a not-so-neat pile on her floor.

Ciel sighed. Sometimes it was so much easier to organize her notes on paper than on the computer. And then things like this happened.

She noticed the data pad she had hit earlier and picked it up, smiling as she saw its contents. Cerveau had come through spectacularly. Ignoring her now-forgotten notebook, in addition to the other volumes littering her floor, she turned her chair back to her desk, absently pulling her left foot out from beneath the pile, and went back to work.

Finally, her project had been getting somewhere over the last few months. Neo Arcadia still had yet to reply on her mostly-finished prototype schematics, but she knew if they didn't trust it then, they certainly would now. After hitting dead-ends left and right for two years, Ciel had long since given up on anything that would normally be considered. She needed something that could generate a lot of power, with minimal resources, in a small area that could be well protected. So that left one option: cyberspace. It helped that the place practically broke the laws of physics anyway (the reason teleportation had been possible), so the amount of power that could be generated was the least of her concerns.

Getting it to _do_ that on the other hand...

The blonde drifted off in her thoughts, idly tapping a random key without actually pressing it. The door hissed open but she didn't notice until a hand set a fresh cup of coffee on her desk.

She looked up at Merle, who was leaning over the pile of books and bracing her other hand on her desk to keep her balance.

The redhead grinned. "Meant to get this to you before you woke up. Cold coffee sucks."

Ciel laughed in agreement. "Thank you. How's everyone doing?"

Merle pushed herself back upright. "Good, the usual, etcetera." she replied, staring innocently at the ceiling.

Looking back down, auburn eyes flashed as she grinned again. "Mostly, we're just waiting 'till next week."

Ciel blinked. "Why? What's next week?"

The grin turned into a blank stare. "...You honestly don't remember, do you?"

When Ciel began to worry, Merle started laughing. "Oh don't make that face, it's not a big deal!" she said entirely too happily, darting out of the room before the blonde had a chance to press her.

She stared after her for a little while, before shaking her head and opening up a calendar. The last thing she wanted was to miss something important for the Resistance because she got too wrapped up in her own project. What was the good of making something if you couldn't appreciate those you were trying to help?

* * *

Zero stepped off the elevator and resumed his patrol through the base. He'd just come from the deck above, where one of the newer cyber-elves was hanging around. Like the one he occasionally saw near the command room, he couldn't see its form, which made him suspect it had once been a reploid. But if it was it wasn't talking.

Other than that small disturbance, things had been relatively calm. With Omega's appearance, he felt like there should be another attack soon; but for now Neo Arcadia was keeping quiet.

Within a minute the rapid tapping of footsteps echoed from down the hall. Zero glanced behind him, and saw Alouette hurrying to catch up. Slowing down, he looked on somewhat curiously as the child reploid began speaking.

"Zero! I was looking for you! I need you to help me with something!"

The legend blinked, not sure what Alouette could possibly want that she couldn't go to Ciel for. "...What is it?"

"It's Ciel's birthday in a week! Don't you remember?" Two pairs of blue eyes met.

Zero hadn't forgotten; he just hadn't given it a lot of thought. Usually he was running some mission or another around that day. "I know."

"I was trying to get Ciel's present, but I want to keep it a surprise and you're the only other person who was there."

"Where?" Zero was now genuinely curious. There weren't very many places he and Ciel had both been to.

Alouette bounced on her toes, seemingly changing the subject in her excitement. "I was just talking to Totten because I was trying to figure out what happens to fusion elves when they use their powers."

Zero nodded, knowing something of what she was talking about. The discovery of satellite elves was only fairly recent, but he'd heard some people mentioning it.

"Totten said that when a fusion elf uses its power, its personality program doesn't get used so it just drifts into cyberspace." Alouette continued. "It doesn't have anywhere to go, so usually it sort of stays in the area it was used in. That's why I need you to take me."

Zero stopped in the middle of the hallway, a few pieces clicking together. "Are you trying to do what I think you're doing?"

Alouette beamed, which was answer enough.

* * *

Colbor stared blankly at the scene before him, not entirely sure exactly _where_ Dande had gotten that much flour nor how it managed to give practically everything – and every_one_ – in the room a light dusting of white.

Merle glanced up from the table in the room. "Oh Colbor!" She giggled and gestured to the surroundings. "Sorry, we're experiencing some minor, ah, technical difficulties."

"I can see that." Colbor muttered, before his face split into a grin. "Hey, a mishap I'm not responsible for! It's a miracle!"

A brunette jokingly threw a balled-up flour package in his direction, narrowly missing but still making his shoulder distinctively paler. "You're not _that_ bad."

"Nah, he used to be worse." Merle shot back. "Hey Robin, grab that thing behind Andrew, would ya?"

The brunette complied and Colbor shook his head, chuckling. "Well I just came to investigate the laughter. I'll leave you guys to... whatever this is."

Dande smiled. "You do that. By the way, have you seen Zero at all?"

Hirondelle poked his head in over Colbor's shoulder, blowing a small amount of flour off it. "Just saw him earlier. Said he was going to check out those anomalies on the radar."

"Where did _you_ come from?" Colbor asked incredulously, staring at the slightly taller reploid.

"Eh. I'm about. Not the intelligence expert for nothing." Hirondelle replied, flashing a thumbs-up. "Hey, have you gotten a present for Ciel yet?"

"Just on my way to go do that!" Colbor said, spinning on his heel and continuing his walk to Cerveau's lab, hoping he'd have what he needed.

* * *

"So it works?"

Zero nodded at Alouette's question. "We should be able to safely go in and out of those. That way we can go find that data."

"You're really taking me with you?"

Another nod. "It's your gift."

"Yay!" Alouette bounced up and down. Then she paused thoughtfully. "It should be from you too, since you're helping me."

Zero shrugged. "Alright. If you want."

The smaller reploid nodded and jumped up onto the bed. They were in Zero's room, since Alouette didn't want Ciel to overhear them talking about her present.

"You didn't celebrate birthdays a lot before, did you?" she asked suddenly, causing Zero to pause.

"...No, not really." he said, searching through the fragments of memories he'd recovered.

They were few in comparison to what he knew what probably there, but it was something. Mostly they involved X. And fighting. He didn't recall acknowledging a birthday or the reploid equivalent before, except for maybe X's a few times. It was hard not to, because he remembered everyone in the base taking part and, well, X was his friend.

"And you missed Ciel's before..." Alouette continued to muse.

Also true. "I had something to do."

"I know." Alouette sighed, her heels clicking against the bed's metal frame as she swung them. Then she smiled. "But you'll be here for this one right?"

"...I'll do my best." Zero said. He certainly wouldn't mind being there for Ciel.

The child across the room from him had a distinctly brighter smile than when he last glanced at her.

They sat in silence for a while. Zero never really had much to say and even if he did Alouette looked lost in thought. Rather than ask, he decided to wait it out and stared at the setting sun from the small window in his room. Internally he sighed, remembering how he got roped into this. But the fact was, Alouette's idea was a good one that would no doubt make Ciel very happy if it worked. That alone was enough to make him help out; but considering the reason for it... well, it just felt... _right_... for him to do this.

"Hey Zero?"

Dragged out of his thoughts by Alouette's voice, the red reploid turned to her. "Yeah?"

"If only half the elf's data goes into cyberspace, how do we replace the rest of it?"

Zero blinked as his mind focused on the new topic. "The part that gets used?"

"Yeah." Alouette hopped down and began pacing. "I mean, even if it's possible to write new data for it, I don't know how to. Maybe Ciel could, but I wanted to do this by myself. Or," she caught herself "with you. It's for Ciel; she shouldn't have to do any work."

"Cerveau?" Zero suggested.

The child shook her head. "No, he doesn't do a lot of work with cyber-elves. That's why I take care of them."

Zero frowned and leaned against the wall, turning the problem over in his mind. If they couldn't write the rest of the data, did it matter? Something tugged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it. He just needed more information.

Of course, there was a walking cyber-elf expert right in front of him...

"Would an elf need the rest of the data? It couldn't use its power, but..."

"No, the data has to be complete." Alouette said, catching onto his suggestion. "That data is what makes up their bodies, their thoughts. It's all they are. That and the energy they use to project themselves into the real world. And that data for their power gets put into whatever they use it on."

"They use it to get their energy to do what they need it to." A few more pieces clicked together in Zero's head.

"Exactly!"

Zero delved into his memory, the intact part this time, and came up with something. "I have an idea on how to fix that."

Alouette turned to the legend hopefully, eyes shining. "Really?"

"Maybe." he cautioned her, having no idea if this had worked the way he thought it did. "Why don't you go to sleep, and I'll see what I can do about it. We can go looking for the rest tomorrow."

"Okay!" she chirped, bouncing off the bed and running out of the room.

Zero almost smiled.

* * *

Kran was busy talking to Rouge and Jaune about where he could find some old springs when the door to the command room opened and a very unlikely duo walked in.

"Zero?" Jaune questioned, eyeing the child reploid at his side.

"Alouette wanted to go look for something for Ciel, so I agreed to take her outside." Zero explained easily, as if this was something completely normal that he did every day.

Kran flicked a piece of hair out of his eyes and smiled. "Well, you two have fun with that; looks like I've got to go dig through all those boxes in Cerveau's lab again."

Rouge stared at Zero for a moment longer, then shrugged and typed in the string of coordinates the legend listed off. Then she started staring at her computer screen. "Isn't this...?"

"Coincidence." Zero cut her off, leading Alouette onto the transerver pad and looking expectantly up at the two operators. "It's just the closest place I know of."

"Well alright..." Jaune said skeptically, having seen the same thing. "All personnel prepare for transfer."

As the command was put in, Alouette piped up. "You can't tell Ciel about this okay? I want it to be a surprise!"

Kran grinned. "My lips are sealed." He made a motion of zipping his mouth, backing a bit further away from the transerver pad as it began to glow.

"Fair enough." "Okay." Rouge and Jaune replied simultaneously, knowing that as long as Zero was there nothing was going to happen. When Alouette nodded in satisfaction, Rouge declared "Transfer!"

* * *

Dande smiled to himself as he climbed down from the guard tower. No mechaniloids in sight and the present he was working on with the others was coming along nicely in terms of supplies. They wouldn't finish it for a few more days, but that was alright. They had five more until the big day.

Heck, at the rate things were going Ciel might not even have to send Zero out on another mission on her birthday this year. She had been so worried the last time they'd tried to celebrate and hadn't relaxed until the legend returned that night, a little banged up but nothing too serious.

He made his way to Merle's room to check if they needed anything else before he made his report to Ciel, since it was on the way. Finding nothing that needed to be done, he stepped out only to meet the person he was looking for as she was coming down the hallway.

"Dande?" Ciel questioned, glancing between him and the room. Suddenly realizing what that might have looked like, the reploid blushed underneath his helmet. "I-It's not that! I was just seeing if Merle needed any help on her present!"

Ciel laughed lightly at how flustered he was. "Sorry, I was just confused. I thought you were still in the guard tower."

Oh, that was almost worse. "N-No, I just got off shift and went to check before I reported to you." He smiled. "You do remember what's coming up right?"

The human smiled tiredly. "Yes, I've been tipped off several times. I was just taking a break and thought I'd come look for you and save you the trip."

Dande managed to regain his composure and made his report. Ciel seemed pleased by the lack of activity, for the very reasons Dande had thought of.

Yes, things were going well so far.

* * *

Alouette's eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lighting of her new location even as Zero moved forward and forced the door open on the other side of the small room. "What if there's not a doorway here?" she asked worriedly, following him into the revealed room.

"Then we look around until we find one and come back here in cyberspace." Zero replied, slowing his pace to ensure the child stayed close.

Alouette nodded and dutifully followed the legend, her eyes growing wide when she saw the wreckage on the other side of the door. "Is that the golem you beat?"

"Yeah; what's left of it. It took Ciel by surprise and caught her, but once I got my saber back it wasn't too hard."

Zero carefully navigated her around the metal and led her into a hallway that was even darker than the first room; only lit by a few broken screens. When they reached a circle of slightly brighter light, he knelt down beside the girl. "Alright, you're going to have to hold on."

* * *

"Avi? Have you seen Alouette?" Ciel asked, noticing the shorter blonde walking by.

The girl stopped and turned to her commander. "Hm? No, not really. Someone mentioned to me that she really wanted to keep her present a secret from you." In truth, she only knew that because Kran had been telling everyone to distract Ciel if she asked about Alouette for the next few hours. She had no idea why, and so went with the most likely guess. Ironically, it wasn't that far off the mark.

"Huh..." Ciel tapped her foot as she thought. "Well she's not in her room, or in Cerveau's lab. The cyber-elves don't know where she is either, and they're always playing with her."

"Dunno what to tell you." Avi said, shrugging. "Maybe ask Hirondelle?"

"That's probably the best bet." Ciel agreed. "Thanks Avi."

"No problem. If I see her I'll tell her you're looking for her."

As soon as the human turned away Avi picked up the pace to her room. She had a present to finish.

* * *

Alouette stared wide-eyed at the room before her. "Where is this?"

"This is where Ciel found me." Zero explained, scanning the room. "I don't see a cyber-door here though."

The child reploid wanted to pout, but was too fascinated by the massive construct in the center of the area. She had no idea how it was suspended on such a broken ceiling.

"Come on." Zero said, tugging her away. Thankfully it wasn't too far until a found a door just around the corner.

If Alouette was fascinated by the machine in that room, she was doubly so by this strange, flickering hologram of a doorway. It seemed to simultaneously be embedded into the otherwise blank wall and float just before it. "We can really get into cyberspace from there?"

"Yeah." Zero said, before reaching out and touching it.

Within moments they found themselves in a green and black world. Neon lines traced out geometric paths in space, the floor below them matching in tone. Aside from that, it looked remarkably similar to the area they were just standing in, perhaps not surprisingly.

"Let's go." Zero said, motioning for Alouette to follow. They made their way back to the holding chamber, where thankfully the water Alouette had seen before did not seem to exist.

With a few quick strides Zero reached the machine that had once held him in stasis. Standing on the platform, he looked around once more. There didn't seem to be much at first, but after a few long moments he began to make out the data flowing through the area. Some were long streams of code; others were closer to clouds, or maybe just flashes. A few of the latter were pink.

He looked down to find Alouette intently staring at him. "Zero?"

He shook his head and looked back out. "It takes a while to find them, but if you concentrate you might be able to see."

Alouette was nothing if not determined, and so she sat by Zero's feet, staring out into the green darkness. Her eyes kept unfocusing, not used to the input she was looking for, and after a few minutes her head began to hurt.

'_I'm doing this for Ciel.'_ she reminded herself, ignoring the headache and continuing to search.

After what felt like forever, flashes of color came into focus. "Zero!" she squealed, scrambling upright.

"I take it you found them." the legend replied, his tone not wavering from its normal neutrality.

"We want the pink ones right?" At Zero's nod the little girl rushed off, trying to capture the little sparks of light.

Zero leaned against the remnants of his capsule, watching her, quietly amused by her enthusiasm. After a few moments he decided he should probably help, and walked in another direction to catch the scattered data.

* * *

Hirondelle sighed as Ciel left his post, looking much less anxious than before.

"You owe me for that." he told the reploid standing next to him.

Kran shrugged. "Tell that to Alouette. And Zero."

Hirondelle flicked back a long lock of hair and sighed again, knowing he wouldn't win. "Point taken."

* * *

"I think that's all of it." Alouette said, staring at the small cloud of data in her hands.

Zero nodded. "Looks like it."

Light blue eyes looked anxiously up into midnight ones. "How will we bring it back? You said we shouldn't get an elf container from Ciel's room..."

"She would've noticed one was gone, and we don't even know if it would work for something like this." Zero said. "I can hold it." He cupped his hands under Alouette's own and the girl opened hers up, letting the data fall and watching in amazement as it was absorbed into Zero's system.

"...Yeah. This'll work." Zero said, running through a quick check. His system scans from the night before had given him some very interesting information; information that had assured him this slightly-crazy plan could be pulled off. Being a very adaptable reploid had its advantages.

Alouette smiled in relief, picking up her plushie from where she had carefully set it on the floor. "We should go back in case Ciel is looking."

Zero nodded in agreement. "Just keep her busy for the next few days would you?"

The smaller reploid nodded happily. "I can do that."

* * *

They arrived at the base without incident and Alouette immediately ran off to look for Ciel. For his part, Zero headed for the roof and sat with his back to one of the guard towers.

"So, you wanna tell me what that was all about?"

He glanced over his shoulder towards Hirondelle, unsurprised that he knew. "You'll find out later."

"Can I use the fact I kept Ciel from worrying about Alouette as a bargaining chip?"

"No."

"Dang." Hirondelle hung his head. He knew from experience there was no arguing with Zero.

* * *

Ciel had been so absorbed in her project that keeping her busy wasn't a challenge at all. Stopping the rumor mill on the other hand, would've been nigh impossible.

Zero had been keeping to his room for the last few days, forgoing many of his typical patrols around the base. At first some had thought he was hiding an injury from some mission – sadly not an unlikely assumption – but what that could have possibly been no one knew. Those who had visited him said he'd looked completely fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Those that knew the last time he'd been out was with Alouette also noticed that there was nothing wrong with her either. A few had even dared to sneak into his room on the rare occasions he left and found nothing to suggest what might be going on, not even something that could resemble a present for a certain human who's birthday was in two days now.

Ciel smiled as she watched Alouette run up to Zero to ask him something, oblivious to the whispers. The little girl had grown very attached to the legend, even before she'd begun spending more time with him over the last few days. She was happy he was seemingly opening up to someone other than herself and maybe Cerveau.

Zero watched the child reploid run off, satisfied that their present would be ready in time, and looked up to see Ciel nearby. He nodded in acknowledgement as the human joined him, before resuming his walk.

"I think I can start working on the prototype soon." Ciel excitedly informed him, neither really paying attention to their route as they headed for the roof. "I'm fairly sure I've worked out all the kinks, so hopefully I can get it working in a few months."

"That's good." Zero replied, leading them out into the open air. "Neo Arcadia still hasn't said anything?"

"No." Ciel admitted, looking down. "Maybe if I show the Guardians the finished plans it will help."

"Probably." Zero acknowledged. "If you get it to Harpuia. He's the most technical-minded; or maybe Leviathan, given that she runs the computer facilities. Fefnir would probably blow it up on accident." He paused for a moment. "Or on purpose, if he can't understand it."

A small grin found its way onto Ciel's face. "Speaking from experience?"

"From what I've seen he has a tendency to shoot at anything that annoys him." Zero stated, leaning on the railing.

Ciel laughed. "Now that I can believe."

The two stared out into the pinkish-orange sky for a moment, the mirth dying away.

"Zero..." Ciel began "You don't mind... doing all this for us, do you?"

The reploid looked at her for a moment. "...My answer hasn't changed from the last time you asked me that. No, I don't mind. I'm here to help you; if that means taking on Neo Arcadia again then that's exactly what I'm going to do."

A sigh escaped the human's lips. "I know. I just can't help asking. You've done so much, and for what?"

"For you." Zero said before she could continue, causing her breath to catch. "If it weren't for you I wouldn't have woken up. I wouldn't have met you, Cerveau, Alouette, or the rest of the Resistance. I wouldn't have met X again. Maybe at one time I wouldn't have minded, given that I apparently let myself be sealed, but..." he shrugged "you are worth fighting for."

Ciel stared at him, partially from the fact that it was a rare occasion he spoke that many words at once, and partially because she was trying and failing to reply. "Z-Zero..." Her blue eyes teared up. "Thank... Thank you, I..."

Zero shook his head, indicating she didn't have to speak. The sun was beginning to set at this point.

The two stood in silence for a while, and went back inside after the sun dipped on the horizon.

After Ciel departed, Zero let himself into his room and locked the door behind him, just in case. Sitting on the bed, he brought his feet up and moved so his back was against the wall.

Carefully, he brought his hand up and reached into his systems. He'd been keeping conscious control this whole time, not daring to risk inattention that might end badly. Slowly, pink light began to gather in his palm, a small figure taking shape.

"Guess you kinda owe me for that too." the figure said, flickering every now and then.

"True." Zero admitted freely. "How stable are you?"

"Getting there. Should be able to cut loose by tomorrow, but I'll wait."

"You have enough energy?"

"More than." The figure grinned. "Alouette's excited isn't she?"

"You have no idea."

* * *

"Happy Birthday!"

The voices of the Resistance members echoed off the walls and resonated in Ciel's ears as Alouette dragged her into the common room. The human's face quickly turned pink as her escort led her to several tables that had been shoved together in the center of the area. Many of the green-clad reploids were carrying a variety of wrapped packages, said wrapping derived from scraps of cloth and paper and the occasional leftover box they had been able to scavenge. Ciel smiled at the sight; she never expected it, but somehow every year those she had saved came together to make at least some sort of gift for her.

"Everyone..." Ciel murmured, smiling particularly widely when she saw the one that stood out from the crowd. She had explicitly told Zero no missions barring extreme emergency, something the operators had backed her up on. Truthfully, a part of her was surprised that he'd agreed so easily.

"Hey!" Merle piped up from the crowd "This year we got you something special!" The reploids quickly parted as Dande and Robin moved towards the tables, carrying a tray between them. When they set it on the table, Ciel gasped.

"A cake? How in the world did you...?"

"I know right?" Merle laughed. "Thank Dande for finding all this stuff. And did you know Andrew used to be a baker?"

"Ah yes, I remember those days." the elderly reploid recalled. "I was working for a bread factory in a small village. I used to work hard and not rest at all because I was happy to see the smiles of those who ate our bread..."

"But it turns out he knows how to make cakes too." Robin interrupted, saving the group from a long-winded story. "So once we heard _that_, well..."

"This is wonderful!" Ciel said, her expression lighting up. "Thank you so much!"

A few other Resistance members moved forward, setting the packages they had been carrying on the table. Ciel accepted one from Colbor, and gingerly pulled the string bow loose, allowing the package to all but unfold in her hands.

"Not the best packing job..." Colbor admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as Ciel pulled out a loop of chain. A pendant dangled from the bottom, made up of small gears and crystals. It had been cleaned, but it was obviously old and still had tiny patches of rust here and there.

It didn't matter to Ciel. "Colbor, where'd you find this?"

"You'd be _amazed_ at what you can find in those boxes in Cerveau's lab." Laughter and several sentiments of agreement came forth from the other reploids.

"The stuff was all kinda stuck together when I found it," the raven-haired reploid admitted as Ciel managed to fasten it around her neck "but I thought it looked cool."

"It does. Thank you." Ciel said, smiling in his direction.

Avi handed her the next one, a small wooden box. As she opened it up, a brightly-colored _something_ shot out of opening, causing the human to fall backwards.

Gingerly standing up, she looked down to see a bright orange coil rolling on the floor. Her eyes quickly flicked back up and located the one she knew this was from.

"_Thank you_, Kran." she said, hitting the perfect mix of sweetness and sarcasm.

"Well, it _is_ spring." the dark-haired reploid commented innocently. An equal amount of laughs and groans were heard from the Resistance.

Avi motioned to the box again, having a fit of giggles herself. "That one's from both of us, actually; but seriously there's something else inside."

Curious, Ciel was still cautious as she opened the box further until she pulled out a handful of pink cloth. Unfolding it, she found it to be a scarf.

"Probably should've gotten that to you a couple months ago." Kran drawled as Ciel ran the cloth through her fingers.

"Don't worry about it. Thank you." she replied, genuinely this time.

Cerveau also handed her a package. "I think you'll find this useful, given that pile of books in your room."

Ciel blushed; she hadn't gotten around to cleaning that up. Opening the package, she found a touch screen a little larger than her two open hands.

"There's a stand on the back too." Cerveau explained. "I took the liberty of scanning some of your older notes in case you needed to go back and look them up. The dates are approximate." Ciel found the stand and then flicked the device on, seeing that the notes in question had been sorted by the journal they had come from, and also by subject and date.

"Cerveau, thank you!" the girl said, gently setting the device down. "That _will_ be helpful."

A few of the other reploids had managed to put together something, and by the end Ciel had a small pile of gifts sitting in front of her. "Everyone... thank you." Ciel reiterated, her eyes tearing up. More than the gifts, it wasn't often that Ciel had a chance to feel, well, _normal_, since she fled to form the Resistance. Now these reploids were her closest friends, and she wouldn't change it for anything, but it was nice to feel loved; though there was always the spontaneous thank-you from some, as a reminder of what she'd been doing for them.

"But there's still one more!" Alouette spoke up, moving to the other side of the tables and climbing on a chair.

"Hey, that's right." Cerveau realized. "We never did see whatever you've been planning for the last week." He ruffled the child's hair playfully.

Alouette shot an expectant grin to Ciel before turning and finding Zero's gaze.

When others followed her look the general chatter died down, replaced with an atmosphere of confusion and curiosity. The small crowd shuffled until there was a clear area between the legend's place against the wall and Ciel.

Zero looked around briefly before his midnight gaze returned to Alouette. He motioned to Ciel with his head. "You explain. This was your idea."

"Okay." Alouette replied, holding her plushie tighter and moving so she could see everyone.

She focused on Ciel as she spoke. "I was talking to Totten about how fusion elves work he told me that when they used their power, their data splits in two. Half of it, the part they use for their power, goes into the thing they affect, but the personality part goes into cyberspace.

"So they live on in cyberspace, they just can't come out?" Colbor asked.

Alouette shook her head. "No. Their body and data break up because half of it is missing. Their personality doesn't have anywhere to go, so it stays in cyberspace wherever their power was used. But I thought that if we could get the personality part back..."

"...You could restore the cyber-elf." Ciel finished, her mind fascinated by the idea; but she was more interested in what this had to do with Alouette's gift. "Do you think it would work?"

"I know it does work." Alouette grinned, causing Ciel to gasp. "Sorta. The hard part is getting both parts of the data. You would have to use one of those doors and get the personality data from that place, and then get the other half."

"Could someone explain this in a way we understand, please?" Kran asked.

"I'll try." Totten said, floating to join Alouette. "For example; I'm a hacker-type elf. Specifically my power is to cover up and block traps like those spike pits." Colbor looked quite interested, having seen one too many of said pits in the past.

"I am made of data and energy, basically. So if I use my power, the energy gets used up, half of that data would go into the cover, the other half goes into cyberspace. It's more or less a parallel plane, so it looks rather similar to the area you would be in if you were in the real world."

"But it's all green though." Alouette commented.

Ciel and Hirondelle responded at exactly the same time. "You went into cyberspace?!"

"Yeah, through the doors."

Helplessly, Ciel turned to Zero for an explanation.

"The anomalies you and the operators found on the radar before." the legend supplied. "They do actually look like doors, and if you touch one you cross into cyberspace, in the same area you were just in. You can get back out the same way."

"And you just blindly tested that?" Hirondelle asked, incredulous. Ciel just groaned, already knowing the answer.

"It's not like I was stupid enough to take Alouette with me the first time."

"...Right." Totten said, cutting back in. "So by some miracle you _can_ actually get into cyberspace. So, if I had used my power, you would have to go into cyberspace, gather the personality data from that area, _and_ somehow pull the other half of my data from the cover, which would then disappear because of it."

"Or," Zero added, causing everyone in the room to turn to him from that single word "the effects wouldn't reverse, because it was only temporary."

"Like any effect on a reploid." Totten agreed.

"In which case," Ciel realized, looking to Zero "the data would be..."

"Still inside the reploid it was used on." Zero finished, looking directly into her eyes, his words laced with hidden meaning.

By this point the rest of the Resistance had grown silent, trying to catch on to what, exactly, they were referring to.

"For example," the legend continued "a certain friend that sacrificed themselves in order to give everyone else a chance."

A collective gasp ensued, as everyone, whether they were around at the time or not, had some idea of this story.

"At least a dozen people, that you cared for, died on that day to awaken me." Zero reminded Ciel. "I think it's only fair you get at least one back."

The girl's face went pale with shock. "Zero, you... How..."

Zero extended a hand, palm up, where a pink light began to gather. "When I was forced awake," he quietly explained "there was a piece of foreign data I quarantined without realizing it, since I had... other things to deal with at the time. Alouette came to me with this idea because she knew she'd have to look outside the base; and after we located where the personality half of the data would be, she mentioned something that reminded me of that day. I checked my own systems, and realized we wouldn't have to look for the other half, because I already had it. So when we found what we were looking for, I kept the data in one of my own subsystems, where it began to reintegrate on its own."

Ciel stared as the light got a little brighter. "So, she..."

"Once she was conscious, I kept her there for a few days so she could use power from my core to stabilize herself." Zero replied to her unspoken question. "Alouette's idea worked perfectly."

The pink light solidified into a small, fairy-like figure. A wisp of blonde hair flicked upward from her forehead, and a pair of blue wireframe wings extended out from behind her back.

Passy opened her eyes and smiled at her friend. "Hey. Been a while hasn't it?"

Ciel let out an incoherent squeal of joy as the cyber-elf leapt from Zero's hand and raced towards her in a flying tackle only someone her size could give. The human cupped her hands around the elf in the closest thing she could get to a hug, and then knelt and wrapped her arms around Alouette, who had since moved to her side.

Finally, still unable to contain her excitement, she crossed the distance between herself and Zero, and gave him a hug as well; not really caring what anyone thought, admittedly including Zero himself.

The reploid for his part went very still as Ciel held him, his mind trying to process what was going on. The strange part was... he wasn't sure he minded the contact.

Slowly, one hand moved up and gently came to rest on the girl's back. Well, as long as Ciel was happy, he'd deal with it.

After a few more moments Ciel broke away, her face immediately matching Zero's armor as she realized what she'd been doing. Passy, for her part, sat back in the air with an expression somewhere between shock and amusement; a sentiment matched by just about everyone other Resistance member in the room.

The cyber-elf was the first to regain her wits. "So... are you gonna eat that cake or what?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

...Wow. I had no idea how long I _thought_ this was going to be, but 17 pages with 7000+ words wasn't it.

You guys proabably figured out where this was going right around the time Zero did, but I think it still reads better if I keep it secret.

While this scenario (reviving Passy as a gift to Ciel, and the specific way to do that) has been floating around in my head for a while, this story was written off the top of my head over the course of about three hours, late at night, and only given some minor edits before posting here. I think some parts could be better, but I was't sure how to fix it. And I didn't want to shelve it because - technically - it's done; and I'll never get back to it if I do that.

The way Zero brings back Passy was loosely inspired by flashgunner's Believe in Me, and the story in general inspired by a few other fics on this site. I hope the explanation wasn't too repetitive.

Um... some other random notes are that Merle, Robin, Kran and some of the others (basically any name you don't recognize) are OCs of mine. The first two were inspired by the portraits of the unnamed Resistance members in the game (Merle from the first, Robin from one of the later ones); Kran just kinda came out of nowhere. Merle is French for blackbird, Kran is... German, I think (maybe Dutch) for crane. Avi come from "avian" (i.e. bird/bird-like).

Hope you guys liked it!

Also: for the record, this takes place around Zero 3 (hence the cyberspace-doors and such).


End file.
